


Goodbye Ever After

by Heart_Seoul_Soshi



Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-05-26
Packaged: 2020-02-07 06:18:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 13,563
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18614872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Heart_Seoul_Soshi/pseuds/Heart_Seoul_Soshi
Summary: When Evie's nightmares herald the end of all she and her friends hold dear, the fate of Auradon again lies in the hands of four villain kids, and war is soon waged between good, evil, and one god you really don't want to get steamed up.





	1. Sweet Dreams

**Author's Note:**

> You know that feeling when Descendants 3 isn't even out yet and you're already rewriting it? Yeah, me too.

"Well well well, look what the three-headed dog dragged in. Atta boy Cerby! You brought something back this time."  
  
Cerberus's mighty barks shook the entirety of the enormous cavern, the vibrations jarring grit and dust loose from the stone ceiling. Hades looked to Evie, his features split with his fiendishly amused grin.  
  
"So? You don't call, you don't write, you show up on my doorstep a year later without so much as a 'Hey, be there in five'?" Hades questioned, one eyebrow raising as that wicked smile devoured Evie right where she stood.  
  
"I didn't mean to—"  
  
Hades waved away her explanation before it even finished leaving her lips.  
  
"Oh sure, you didn't mean to. No one ever  _means_  to, yadda yadda yadda. And to what do I owe this displeasure?"  
  
Evie's hand clutched at the strap of the heart purse slung across her chest, a tight grip she employed to mentally ground herself and make her get the words out.  
  
It worked. But just barely.  
  
"...Dad, I need your help." 

* * *

"Evie!  _Evie!_  Wake up!!"

It was a horribly jarring thing to be yanked out from one reality and suddenly thrust into another, so terribly disorienting to one's senses. Evie awoke with a gasp so sharp it pierced her lungs, ears ringing and head spinning. Instinct put those disoriented senses on high alert in a very fight-or-flight way, and Evie's heart pounded a beat so deafening that not even the ringing ears could numb her to the sound of it. Bleary eyes focused, vision sharpened, and then there was Mal, standing over the bed with her hands slowly retreating from Evie's shoulders.  
  
"...M?" Evie's throat was raw, her voice hoarse.  
  
Something very close to relief passed over Mal's face as she stepped back, as if to give Evie much-needed breathing room.  
  
"...You were screaming. You had another nightmare," Mal quietly explained.  
  
Evie slowly sat up with a whine, burying her face into a hand. She was burning up, the covers pooled over her lap sweltering.  
  
"Do you remember this time?" Mal wondered, crossing her arms and inching back towards Evie's bed.  
  
"...No. Nothing," Evie lifted her head and roughly rubbed at her eyes like she was trying to scour away any last lingering grains of sleep.  
  
She looked up at Mal then and saw those eyebrows knitted together, those lips puckered into a subtle pout.  
  
"I'm fine," Evie assured her. "It was just a bad dream."  
  
"The third bad dream this week. Not to mention all the bad dreams from  _last_  week. That doesn't sound like 'fine' to me."   
  
Mal's tone seemed stern, but Evie knew fully well that Mal's Stern Voice and her Worried Voice were nearly identical.  
  
"And you can't even remember what happens in these nightmares?" Mal continued, settling in on the edge of Evie's bed. "E, it sounds like there's something going on with you."  
  
"There isn't."  
  
Mal's eyes went wide.  
  
"...Then maybe it's a spell. A curse! Maybe Uma—!!"  
  
"Is down the hall, asleep in her own bed, exhausted from utterly destroying the entire fencing team yesterday," Evie interrupted with a small laugh. "She's adjusting, Mal. Not relapsing."  
  
"Yeah, well, I was 'adjusted' for six whole months before I snapped and went running back to The Isle," Mal handily reminded her.  
  
"You weren't adjusted, you were a mess. A wreck. A tragedy waiting to happen."  
  
Mal narrowed her eyes, worry quickly turning into that near-identical stern.  
  
"You're pushing it," she warned.  
  
Evie was all smiles, the black veil of a nightmare lifted and her heart slowing to a nice, normal beat.  
  
"I try," she leaned over and pressed a tender kiss to Mal's cheek. "Good morning."  
  
Mal thought she'd gotten over the phase where she turned ridiculous shades of pink at the touch of Evie's lips. Well, that's what she got for thinking. A terribly dangerous pastime.   
  
"Good morning," she said back. "E, these nightmares—"  
  
"Are nothing," Evie pushed the covers off of her and stretched. "Everyone has them."  
  
"Not for two weeks in a row with no memory of what they dreamt, they don't."  
  
"Please stop worrying. I've faced dragons and pirates and sea witches with you, I'm pretty sure I'm safe from the imaginary things inside my head."  
  
It must have been a fairly convincing argument, for Mal stayed quiet. Evie got to her feet and silently shooed her away with a wave of the hand so she could start making her bed.  
  
"Well, speaking of monsters we've faced and are still continuing to face, there's one you left off your little list; ex-boyfriends. You have that council meeting today," Mal said.  
  
Evie looked up from fluffing her pillow to roll her eyes at Mal.  
  
"Ben is not a monster. It's just not easy for him to see his ex-girlfriend start to date someone else, especially when that someone else is his friend and royal councilor," she explained.  
  
"All he's done is act weird around us," Mal grumbled, sitting now on her own bed.  
  
"Like I said."  
  
_"You_  didn't act weird when Doug started seeing that girl in marching band."  
  
Evie shrugged easily, straightening out her sheets.  
  
"Doug and I never got as close as you and Ben. We were never in love."  
  
"I'm not so sure I ever was either," Mal copied Evie's shrug. "It just sort of felt like I was."  
  
Evie couldn't help a smirk.  
  
"So because you felt like you were in love, that makes you think you  _weren't_  in love?" she questioned.  
  
"Love can wear a lot of masks that don't really belong to it."  
  
Evie's smirk faded from her lips.  
  
"...Wow, that's a pretty deep thought for first thing in the morning. Are you okay?" now it was her turn to worry.  
  
Mal snapped out of it, and laughed it off.  
  
"Yeah. It's just, you know, I never had to worry about the whole romance thing back on The Isle."  
  
Bed neatly made up now, Evie moved around it to walk up to Mal and take her hands, pulling her to her feet.  
  
"The whole romance thing wishes she could go down to breakfast with you, but the council meeting is this morning, before school starts," she told Mal.  
  
"You're a busy girl. I don't know how you do it."  
  
"Support and encouragement."  
  
"Oh. Well, you have a lot of that," Mal returned Evie's favor and left a wonderfully soft kiss on her cheek. "I'll see you in Physics, then."  
  
Already dressed and ready for the day, Mal left with a goodbye to head off to breakfast alone, leaving Evie to herself in the dorm. The first thing she did was get the shower going in the bathroom, letting the water run and heat up.  
  
Mal worried too much, a nightmare was nothing to fuss over for any longer than the first few moments after waking, Evie felt perfectly fit as a fiddle now that she was back in reality with a warm shower in her future. But it wasn't like she could really say anything to Mal's worry, or even be the slightest bit bothered by it; Mal was cute when she was concerned.  
  
Evie had always been raised—or more accurately, trained—to be with a royal and noble prince. Being with a dwarf's son was a good first step in defying her mother and taking back her life, but really, she was most proud of being with her best friend. Mal had tried out Evie's once-dream of being with a prince, but in the end it just wasn't for her. Evie was for her, and when the two began dating, not many at Auradon Prep could say they were surprised.  
  
Evie ran her hand under the streaming shower water, testing the heat. Just another minute or so, and it would be perfect. She'd make her meeting in plenty of time.  
  
She loved her position as a royal councilor, and she loved how that position let her work with the Auradon Bureau of Isle Affairs, helping to bring more kids over to Auradon and trying to make better lives for the ones who chose to stay behind. She loved it, but she often wished it didn't mean missing breakfast with Mal, or missing time with Mal in general. She'd been right, after all, Evie  _was_  a busy girl. But Evie was trying very hard not to be what Ben was to Mal—so involved and caught up in the affairs of a kingdom that there was little time for a social life, let alone a romantic one. She and Mal hadn't been dating long, but already Evie was very adamant about not doing anything to ruin what they had between them.  
  
Not that Ben being king and his lack of a social life was the only reason that the royal couple had broken up, but still. Evie didn't want to take these particular chances. Even if she and Mal had far more in common than Ben and Mal did, even if they weren't from two completely opposite worlds the way Ben and Mal were, Evie couldn't help but think of her relationship as a thing of glass. Not something that was fragile, but something she desperately didn't want to see break.   
  
She'd given Mal a concerned eye for voicing a deep thought so early in the morning, and now here she was doing the same thing herself, the bathroom mirror starting to fog as she got lost for a moment inside her own head while the shower water blazed away. If these were the sorts of things locked within her mind, then maybe it was no surprise that she was being rewarded with nightmares. Being morbid was a choice, however, one that Evie decided she would not be making after once again shaking herself into her version of reality. She had a shower waiting, she had a council meeting waiting, she had Mal and her friends and another wonderful day at Auradon Prep waiting. She had no reason to dwell on troubling thoughts.  
  
So dwell on them, she didn't.

* * *

The afternoon, like many of Auradon's afternoons, was far too nice to be spent inside, so out on the campus's vast green lawn was where Evie found her friends when lunchtime rolled around. Mal had one of her sketchbooks, her food barely touched in front of her as she sketched Dude napping under the sunlight. Jay and Carlos's lunches were nowhere to be found, their trays empty on the grass as they worked off the food they wolfed down by going a round or two with their fencing foils. Evie wore a smile the entire walk over to them.  
  
"Guys, give it up. Uma trounced you fair and square," she teased as she came to a stop behind Mal, standing over her.  
  
The boys said nothing, concentrating on their footwork and trying not to relive yesterday's butt-whooping at the hands of Uma's swordsmanship.  
  
"You should ask her to join R.O.A.R.," Evie suggested, taking a seat beside Mal on the grass. "No way would Lonnie turn her down."  
  
"Uma doesn't want to be part of a team, she just wants to win," Jay grumbled.  
  
"Well, after all, she's—"  
  
"Adjusting," Jay and Carlos said together, lowering their foils to turn towards Evie and let her see just how hard they were trying not to roll their eyes.  
  
"Hey, back off," Mal told them, pencil stilling in her hand as she turned a piercing stare on the boys. "It's Evie's job as Ben's Isle councilor to look out for all the new VKs transferring to the school. She can sound like a broken record if she wants to."  
  
A piercing stare quickly dissolved into a wicked chuckle as Mal caught sight of Evie's pout and playfully bumped her shoulder.  
  
"You're so very funny," Evie made no attempt to hide  _her_ roll of the eyes. "I just want the new kids to be welcome here."  
  
"They'll feel welcome when they feel welcome," Mal said. "They're all different, E. When we first came to Auradon you were swooning over the dorm and I wanted to set the drapes on fire. Most of the villain kids will get used to Auradon in their own way, sticking them all into clubs probably won't help."  
  
"It might," Evie said haughtily. "It worked with Jay."  
  
"Jay's a fluke."  
  
"Jay is standing right here," the fluke grumbled.  
  
"Uma and Harry and a lot of the others are like me," Mal said, ignoring Jay. "They'll take more time. But also like me, if they have you looking out for them, then they're in good hands."  
  
Jay pretended to gag.  
  
"Where's your lunch?" Mal wondered, seeing how Evie clearly hadn't made a stop at the dining hall before coming out on the lawn.  
  
"Oh, I'm not hungry. Early morning council meetings come complete with a king-sized breakfast buffet," Evie said simply.  
  
As glad as Mal was that it was Evie on the royal side of things now instead of her, she had to admit, a king-sized breakfast buffet had her envious.  
  
"Hey, in all seriousness E, I'm proud of you. You're helping Auradon do what not even Ben could help it do; give better lives to the kids from The Isle," Mal said.  
  
Evie melted at her words, reaching over and squeezing Mal's hand.  
  
"...M, thank you. That means so much to me."  
  
"You two are gross," Jay tapped his fencing foil against the ground, getting Carlos's attention and restarting their practice duel.  
  
The girls happily ignored him.  
  
"No council meetings tomorrow, right?" Mal asked.  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Good. Then you can sleep in and we can go to breakfast together. The dining hall doesn't exactly offer king-sized buffets, but it has me, so, bonus."  
  
"Big bonus," Evie agreed with a smile.  
  
Jay and Carlos liked to make fun of it, but Mal and Evie were enjoying every single moment of their heart-eyes phase. Evie leaned in close as Mal went back to her sketching, peering over her shoulder as the pencil moved and brought Dude to life.  
  
"I haven't seen  _you_  with your sketchbook lately," Mal noted, aware of Evie watching her.   
  
Evie shrugged.  
  
"Business slows down without any school dances or parties around the corner. But it's alright, with all the time I spend with the royal council, it's nice to not be swamped with 4 Hearts work too."  
  
"...You really do have a lot going on," Mal mused. "No wonder you aren't sleeping well."  
  
"I sleep just fine," Evie laid her head on Mal's shoulder.  
  
Carlos sidestepped Jay's piercing foil with a triumphant grin, never taking his eyes off his opponent even in the middle of conversation.  
  
"Speaking of sleep, who wants to not get any tonight?" he asked.  
  
Dude snored himself awake, rolling over and stretching and effectively ruining Mal's sketch.  
  
"What are you talking about?" she sighed, giving the dog a despondent frown as she spoke.  
  
"The Main Street Cinema in the city is having a horror movie marathon. And as seniors, we get the latest curfew," Carlos explained with a grin.  
  
"You wait until your girlfriend is out of town to hit a movie marathon? Nice," Jay mocked.  
  
"Jane doesn't even like scary movies," Carlos argued.  
  
"And you do?" now it was Mal's turn to mock, well aware of how Carlos sometimes qualified as the scaredy-cat of the group.  
  
Carlos silently called a timeout on the fencing duel, tucking his foil under his arm and turning to glare at Mal.  
  
"Oh come on, they're just movies. I'm not scared of movies. I know the difference between fantasy and real life."  
  
Mal's lips curved into a sneer.  
  
"Yeah? What about that kid with the great Headless Horseman costume at the Halloween party last year?" she questioned.  
  
Carlos went pale.  
  
"Things need heads, Mal!!" he snapped, voice squeaking a little.  
  
Evie giggled, comfy on Mal's shoulder.  
  
"Are you in?" Mal asked her.  
  
"I'm in," Evie didn't hesitate. "I'll never pass on VK time."  
  
"Awesome," Carlos said, sitting down in the grass and reaching for his water bottle to cool off. "Then we're set. Jay, you can be my date."  
  
"You wish," Jay scoffed.  
  
Evie's life had definitely become something of a whirlwind lately; running here, running there, school and the council and her fashion business all balanced precariously atop her head. It was the little moments like this that she greatly appreciated, moments with her friends on soft green grass and the promise of later moments in a dark theater with popcorn and candy.  
  
"...Whoa, check it out," Jay suddenly wore an impressed smile as he looked up from slipping his fencing foil into his sports bag.  
  
Three heads followed his gaze to Audrey and her clique strolling across the lawn, where an afternoon breeze lifted hair that was once brown but was now suddenly a soft and golden blonde, broken up by faint highlights of pink and blue.  
  
"Wow, Audrey!" Evie said excitedly when the princess and her friends drew close.  
  
Audrey could recognize the hints of praise from miles away, dragging her friend to a stop along with her and showing off with a coy smile and a few dazzling turns.  
  
"Dizzy's work?" Mal guessed.  
  
"Mhm," Audrey stylishly flipped her hair back for good measure.  
  
"You look so much like your mom," Evie gushed.  
  
"Aww, thank you Evie," Audrey giggled, holding her head up proudly.  
  
She left the VKs behind with a smile and a playful little curtsy, continuing on her way with her friends.  
  
"She looks so good as a blonde," Evie marveled, eyes following an Audrey who was getting smaller and smaller with distance.  
  
"Much better than I did," Mal said, pushing away Dude as he sniffed curiously at her lunch tray.  
  
"Nonsense, Mal. You were beautiful with your blonde, we just prefer the purple. It's the real you," Evie told her.  
  
Mal curiously took a strand of her long magenta hair in her fingers, as if noticing it for the first time.  
  
"I've been missing the dark purple, though," she admitted. "The more I look at this the more I just see pink."  
  
"Pay another visit to Dizzy, then," Carlos suggested. Dude had found his way into his lap, and now Carlos was giving him absentminded scratches.  
  
"Sounds like a plan."  
  
Evie rather missed the dark purple herself, her favorite shade of Mal. It reminded her of the Mal she first met on The Isle, and even though life on The Isle was nothing to reminisce about—nor were her and Mal's rocky beginnings—Evie still liked to have the memories there to look back on in awe at how far they'd all come.   
  
Mal, who was once Maleficent's daughter, then was a lady of the court, and now was finally comfortable just being  _herself,_ being  _Mal._  Carlos, whose head was once filled with the grating screeches of his cruel mother but nowadays enjoyed far gentler sounds, like the soft snore of a dog, the chuckle of a best friend, the endearing giggle of a girlfriend. Then there was Jay, whose hands were always his lifeline whether it was his fingers picking pockets or his fists beating out bruises. These days his hands drew people in for hugs, waved to cheering crowds at Tourney games, rested on the shoulders of his friends to silently reassure them that everything would be okay.  
  
And finally, there was Evie. The crushing pressure to be perfect was one she carried her entire life, even through a decade-long banishment where a mother's discerning eye watched and judged her every move, her every gesture. But now she was free of that dark and decrepit castle, now she was in Auradon, a senior at the kingdom's most prestigious prep school with a girl at her side who was perfectly imperfect and two boys lounged out on the grass across from her who were the brothers her heart never had. The sun warmed her face like the friends around her warmed her very core, and she closed her eyes to simply bask. She was Evie. This was her life. This was the life she was helping to bring to so many other Isle kids who were once like her and the other VKs.  
  
So right now, it didn't matter to Evie that her morning had gotten off to a rough start, with nightmares and screams and disorienting fear. Another incredible day in Auradon had certainly more than made up for it.

* * *

Mal didn't know what time it was when the ear-splitting shriek pierced the air and kicked her heartbeat into a speeding gallop, and frankly, she didn't care.  
  
"Evie!!"   
  
She practically fell out of bed in her scramble to throw the covers off and touch her feet to the floor, stumbling wildly as she raced to Evie's own bedside. Evie crazily tossed and turned as she screamed, as if drowning underwater and desperately trying to thrash her way to the surface. Mal had to fight to get and keep ahold of her, to shake her back to the safety of the real world.  
  
"E, wake up!!"  
  
Evie's eyes shot open, and the sight of the dark figure looming over her and the claw-like grip on her shoulders wrenched loose another scream.  
  
"Hey, it's me! It's Mal!"   
  
The sound of her voice was all Evie needed, and the thrashing stopped. The scream faded into heavy, almost gasping breaths. Evie's eyes squeezed shut to give her a second to mentally reset, to be ready to face reality when she opened them back up again.  
  
"...Geez, Evie."  
  
She felt herself be pulled into a tight hug, her head against Mal's chest and the thrumming heartbeat she heard there droning in her ear.  
  
"Mal..." she breathed the name as a relieved sigh, relief that whatever horror had found her in the unforgiving dark was chased away in an instant by Mal's presence.  
  
Mal only let her go to give her a chance to cool off, feeling how on fire Evie was in her arms.  
  
"What was it this time?" she asked.  
  
Evie slowly shook her head.  
  
"...I don't know. I don't remember anything."  
  
Mal didn't particularly care for that answer.  
  
"E, this is crazy! You're screaming in your sleep!" she tensely said, completely exasperated.  
  
"M, I'm sorry, but all I ever remember is getting into bed and closing my eyes! I don't know what I'm dreaming about!"  
  
Mal sighed, burying her face in her hands for a moment before looking back at Evie.  
  
"...Don't be sorry.  _I'm_  sorry," Mal apologized for raising her voice. "I just don't like seeing you this way, screaming and scared and—"  
  
"But I'm okay," Evie interrupted. "I wake up and I'm fine."  
  
"This isn't fine!" Mal argued, taking a curt step backwards when Evie reached for her hand. "Evie, people don't have nightmares like this!"  
  
"We spent all night at a horror movie marathon, of course I had a nightmare," Evie tried to play it off for Mal's sake. She hadn't seen her this stressed since her days as the king's girlfriend.  
  
Mal didn't say anything, just crossed her arms and stared up at the ceiling, her jaw tightening as she did so.  
  
"...M, I understand that you're worried. If the roles were reversed, I would be too. You keep asking me what's wrong, but really, nothing is. There's just a lot going on for me right now. And the mind is a strange thing, sometimes a busy schedule is all it takes to give it nightmares."  
  
"...Yeah."  
  
Mal was inclined to agree. Been there, done that, after all.  
  
"Yeah," she muttered again. "Alright. Back to bed, I guess."  
  
She turned, but when Evie reached out for her hand once more, she caught it.  
  
"M, I don't want to keep waking you. Jane's dorm is empty with her out of town, I'm sure she wouldn't mind if I—"  
  
"No," Mal was quick to say. "...No. I'd rather you be here with me."  
  
Evie smiled, and squeezed Mal's hand.  
  
"I'd prefer that too. Goodnight, Mal."  
  
"...Night."  
  
"We'll have breakfast together in the morning."  
  
Now it was Mal who smiled.  
  
"My favorite thing," she said.  
  
She retreated back to the comfort of her own bed, burying herself in a soft pillow and under soft sheets. But she didn't let her eyes fall shut, not just yet.  
  
Silently, she laid there, staring up into the dark and waiting. Listening. Listening across the room for minutes on end until Evie's breathing slowed and deepened, the telltale sign that she had fallen back asleep.   
  
The villain kids came from a literal island of horrors, and still Mal had never heard Evie scream the way she did in her nightmares. It scared Mal. It scared her, and she didn't scare easy. A week ago, when the nightmares started, when that first horrified scream shattered the slumbering silence of their dorm, that was the most scared Mal had ever been in her life. Lost in the dark, with the paralyzing thought that something was happening to Evie; Mal hadn't known fear like that even when she was face to face with a fuming dragon.  
  
She wished she knew what Evie was dreaming, the unknown of it all was what bothered Mal the most. But Evie never remembered. Only empty blackness.  
  
She sounded at peace now, as Mal continued to listen to her breathe. Still, she wished. If only she knew what to fight, what to protect Evie from, maybe they'd both rest a little bit better.  
  
Mal waited up a little while longer, listening very carefully to Evie's tiny sounds, slight movements. Finally, she rolled over, facing Evie's side of the room, and finally, she closed her eyes.

* * *

Like Mal, if she'd gotten her rotten way right from the very beginning, many of The Isle's villain kids refused the offer to come to Auradon. They too saw the kingdom as Mal and her friends once did, a land of weak, sissy softness and too many rules. As such, Ben made it Evie's job to think of ways to improve the lives of the citizens (no longer referred to as "denizens") of the island. Ben had been to the Isle of the Lost, but he'd never lived there, never grew up there. He didn't know the day-to-day hardships faced by its inhabitants. As a royal, he'd never known day-to-day hardships at all. For all his good intentions, Ben was wise enough to know it wasn't his place to dictate what was best for The Isle, and so, he entrusted the task to Evie.  
  
There were the obvious solutions, of course, like not feeding The Isle  _garbage,_ but changing twenty-one years' worth of damage did not come easy. Evie was at her drawing desk, where sketching was traded for writing as she scribbled out ideas for change on a spare piece of notebook paper that she might suggest to the royal council at the next meeting. There were facts to present, opening speeches to write, key points to highlight. Evie's pencil lead was almost worn to a nub.  
  
The door opened behind her, and Evie stopped her scribbling. Her writing was surprisingly messy and incoherent—the product of jotting down thoughts at lightning speed before they vanished—but it made sense to her.  
  
"Hey Mal, what do you think about—"   
  
She turned around in her chair to get Mal's opinion as she came through the door, but stopped short at the sight of her. Mal, who had left the dorm room that morning with her magenta hair hanging straight down to her shoulders but now returned with flawless waves of a dark violet. Evie's face lit up.  
  
"Mal! You've been to Dizzy's!" she said excitedly.  
  
Mal smiled.  
  
"Still the best at what she does," she said, trailing her fingers through the silky softness of her newly-done hair.  
  
Evie stood up and went over to Mal to admire up close, doing the same as her and running her fingers through purple tresses the way she was so used to doing. But she stopped as she studied Mal's hair in the light, really saw the color of it.  
  
"Do you have...blue highlights?" she asked, letting her hand fall.  
  
"Maybe," Mal answered.  
  
"...M, did you do that for me?"  
  
"...Maybe."  
  
Evie couldn't believe it. Well, in some ways she could. Mal was an artist, she expressed herself in her clothes, her hair, the polish on her nails. It did seem fitting that she would express her affection in the exact same way.  
  
"...Mal, you are the sweetest girl I have ever known," Evie softly said, reaching down and holding Mal's hands.  
  
She leaned in and brushed her lips along Mal's jaw before kissing her cheek, feeling her warm with a blush.  
  
"Come on, E..." Mal shyly murmured, shrugging off the allegation of being sweet.  
  
"I mean it. You're the best girlfriend I've ever had."  
  
Mal sidestepped another one of Evie's kisses for the sole purpose of messing with her, wearing a wicked smirk as she did.  
  
"Nice try, I'm the only girlfriend you've ever had," she corrected. "Now what were you going to ask me?"  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"When I walked in, you were asking what I thought about something."  
  
"Oh! Yes. My 'Isle Improvement Ideas'," Evie led her over to the desk where her disorganized notes lay. "This one in particular, really."  
  
She pointed to where she'd circled one of her bullet points over and over again. Mal picked up the sheet of paper and read.  
  
"Building a new school? Wow, that's pretty ambitious, E."  
  
"Yeah," Evie bit her lip, as if nervous just talking about it. "But the kids who won't come to Auradon are still stuck going to places like Dragon Hall and Serpent Prep, they're still being taught how to be evil and rotten."  
  
"The villains were abandoned on a floating rock and forced to build their own society, what else did anyone expect?" Mal grumbled.  
  
"I know, I know, but with things changing now I figure that if we can't bring The Isle to Auradon, then we can at least bring Auradon to The Isle. A school that's a  _school_  and not an old tomb in a cemetery, a normal school with things like math class and cheerleading and art club."  
  
"You're quite the Isle ambassador," Mal smiled proudly. "So you're gonna suggest this at the next council meeting?"  
  
"I'm going to try. Ben is easy enough to run things by, but the council, not so much. And the Bureau of Isle Affairs doesn't do anything without the council's approval."  
  
Mal's short laugh served as a scoff, Evie could tell.  
  
"Please. Isn't the 'royal council' just a bunch of sidekicks?" she snickered, setting Evie's paper back on the desk.  
  
"Oh sure. Sidekicks like the seven dwarfs, who had to lay their princess to rest because of a certain evil queen, Pongo and Perdita, whose kids were almost made into coats by a certain devil woman, and the Three Good Fairies, who watched  _their_  princess fall into a sleep like death because of a certain mistress of all evil."  
  
"...Ah. Point taken," Mal murmured.  
  
"Not to mention that your mother may be the worst, but my mother was the  _first."_  
  
"The one that started it all," Mal remembered, nodding. "The first villain."  
  
Evie reached down and absentmindedly straightened out the paper and pencils on the desk as she spoke.  
  
"It's really not as bad as all that, though. The council understands I'm not my mother, and villain kids aren't their parents. Still, there are...grudges. Buried so deep they don't even realize they're there, but grudges nonetheless."  
  
"...And just when we thought things were getting better," Mal rolled her eyes.  
  
"Things  _are_  getting better," Evie was quick to correct. "But the rift between The Isle and Auradon goes back over two decades, it can't be fixed overnight."  
  
"Not even by you?"  
  
Evie giggled.  
  
"Not even by me."  
  
"Well. That sucks," Mal wandered over to Evie's bed and flopped down dramatically on it.  
  
Evie laughed some more, following after Mal.  
  
"Hey, come back here. I wasn't done admiring Dizzy's work."  
  
She flopped down right beside Mal, bouncing the both of them on the bed before softly combing her fingers through Mal's hair.  
  
"I really did miss this color," Evie said. "It looks so good, M. And of course, the blue is a very nice touch."  
  
"Of course," Mal closed her eyes, concentrating very hard on Evie's fingers in her hair.  
  
"What did Dizzy say when you told her you wanted blue highlights?"  
  
"She didn't 'say'. She squealed."  
  
Evie smiled. That sounded exactly like Dizzy.  
  
"She's certainly something else," Evie marveled, looking at Mal and suddenly finding herself unsure of just who she was really referring to.  
  
Mal at her side was certainly nothing new. Neither was running her fingers through Mal's hair, neither was Mal's head lazily coming to rest on Evie's shoulder. The wave of utter calm that washed over Evie as all three of those things came together, however, was most assuredly new. Total peace, like nothing could hurt her, nothing could trouble her, nothing would worry her mind ever again so long as Mal was there cuddled up beside her. A very new feeling. Evie liked it.  
  
She turned to brush the hair out of Mal's face and left a grateful kiss on her cheek after tucking the purple behind her ear. Mal opened one already-sleepy eye, cutting her glance sideways at Evie.  
  
"Not that I'm complaining about what we have, because I'm definitely not, but when were you planning on  _actually_  kissing me?"   
  
Evie rarely ever turned red, as if her very skin simply would not allow it, but here and now she definitely felt a flush staining her pretty face. Embarrassment. Embarrassed to be caught by Mal and called out so easily, reflexively biting her lip with the shyest of smiles.  
  
"...When the moment is perfect," Evie quietly answered, deciding in the split second before the word left her mouth that 'right' wasn't the proper one and 'perfect' suited her feelings much better. "...When I kiss you for the first time, I want it to be perfect."  
  
Mal looked like she was contemplating Evie's words, thinking them over, lost in her own head for a second or so.  
  
"...Then I want that too," she said. "We spent all that time being best friends when we could've been something more, and now we're finally something more but still best friends...our story  _should_  be perfect. I really like this, E. I like  _us."_  
  
Evie giggled.  
  
"I'm pretty fond of us myself."  
  
Mal let her head fall back into place on Evie's shoulder, let her eyes unfocus a bit as she distractedly played with Evie's fingers.  
  
"Busy tonight?" she wondered.  
  
Evie had to think for a moment, call to mind her usually packed schedule and piece through her plans.  
  
"Not tonight," she realized.  
  
"Then I think tonight should be movies, blankets, and pajamas. Just like this."  
  
Evie certainly couldn't protest.  
  
"Just like this" changed only in the slightest come nightfall, where it was Evie lazily curled up on Mal's shoulder instead of the other way around. Blankets, pajamas, and one lamp on in the cozy dorm room had Evie fast asleep and Mal rooted in place, not daring to disturb her rest. She had long since turned the volume down on the tv and stifled her laughter at all the funny parts, making sure to keep as still as possible and leave Evie in peace. She would wake up eventually, yawn and stretch and snuggle deep under the covers while Mal clicked the tv off and retired to her own bed for the night, but for now, Mal was content to leave her be.  
  
Content. There was a word Mal was only recently beginning to be acquainted with. Not once was it ever like this with Ben.  
  
Mal cursed herself for thinking it, hated comparing Evie to Ben even if it  _was_  in a positive light. Evie was incomparable, always had been, always would be. Mal used to gag at the sick and swooning stories of Auradon's heroines falling head over heels for their princes, but now, with Evie, she was truly starting to understand head over heels. Head over heels looked a lot like sitting as still as a statue and quiet as a mouse to avoid waking a tired princess.  
  
But despite Mal's good intentions, Evie started to stir sooner than expected, murmuring under her breath as if talking in her sleep. Evie didn't talk in her sleep.  
  
"...E?" Mal softly whispered.  
  
Evie's eyebrows knit together over her closed eyes, as if hearing her own name and confused by the sound of it. Her murmurs continued; unintelligible, but with a definite uptick of distress.  
  
"Hey, snap out of it," Mal cast aside the whispers and raised her voice to be heard.  
  
"No..." Evie muttered, her eyes squeezed so tight. "No..."  
  
Mal was sure she wasn't responding to her. She reached over and shook her, gently at first, then more and more urgently as Evie's unconscious panic grew.  
  
"Evie, it's a bad dream. Come on, don't do this to yourself again, wake up."  
  
The screaming started then, along with poor Evie's crazed flailing, like horrifying arms in the dark were reaching for her, grasping, and she was desperate to get away. Yet it was only Mal's arms that reached for her, struggling to still her and save her from falling off the bed.  
  
"I'm here, Evie! I'm right here! Wake up!"  
  
Evie's eyes snapped open but her mind was still caught in the nightmare realm, wrenching her wrists free to swat at Mal, fighting her away.  
  
"Hey, it's me, remember?? It's only Mal! E, calm down!"  
  
Reality hit Evie all at once, clearing away the terrible fog smothering her and her senses. She descended into tears then, falling into Mal's waiting hug.  
  
"...It's okay," Mal whispered in her ear. "You're awake. The bad dream is over."  
  
Evie shook her head against Mal's shoulder.  
  
"...I remember," she whispered back. "...I remember this one."  
  
Mal was startled to hear it, but didn't let Evie go.  
  
"What happened?" she asked.  
  
"...Destruction," Evie's voice cracked.  
  
Mal didn't at all like the sound of that.  
  
"Earthquakes, fires, everything collapsing around me...nowhere to run," Evie continued, burying her face in the soft collar of Mal's pajama shirt.  
  
It couldn't be denied that Mal was suddenly feeling just as cold and ill at ease as if it were  _her_ escaping the nightmare,  _her_  trapped in the aftermath. Evie always said that her nightmares were nothing, that she was fine and unbothered upon waking. But here she was now, taking shelter in Mal's arms and reliving the horrors over and over again.  
  
"Evie..." Mal forced her name out, rubbing a hand up and down Evie's back. "...If this is the kind of stuff you've been dreaming about all this time..."  
  
Evie lifted her head with a sniff, looking up into Mal's suddenly widening eyes.  
  
"...What, M?" she prodded.  
  
Mal almost didn't want to say it now, but, well, she'd brought it up, and Evie had asked.  
  
"...E, what if these dreams of yours are prophetic?"  
  
It actually did Evie some good to hear it. She could've used a laugh right about now.  
  
"Prophetic dreams? Mal, I'm the daughter of a sorceress, not a seer."  
  
Evie wiped her eyes, calming down a bit and sitting up from Mal's hold. Her girlfriend, however, wasn't quite as ready to laugh and let it go.  
  
"Okay, but what if??" she pressed. "You suddenly start having nightmares. You never remember what about, until now. Now you remember chaos and destruction. The destruction of what, E? Of Auradon?"  
  
"I don't know, Mal. I don't remember  _that_  much. Just the feeling of it, just me being somewhere and seeing everything coming down around me. Nothing told me it was Auradon, nothing told me it was  _anywhere_  specific."  
  
Mal couldn't brush it off as simply, for she was the one suddenly hyperaware of the fact that the Isle of the Lost was just across the water, still housing the worst villains in the land, villains whose hunger for revenge only grew with every passing day. Evie saw the feelings flashing to life in Mal's eyes, and now took the mantle of providing comfort upon herself.  
  
"There's no threat to Auradon," she told her, cupping her hand to Mal's cheek. "We've already saved it twice, Mal. Once from Maleficent, who's back under the barrier, once from Uma, who's now here with us...there's no one left to hurt us, not anymore."  
  
It was clear that Mal wasn't quite so easily convinced.  
  
"I'm not the only one of us who's had to deal with nightmares before, remember?" Evie said. "A certain someone once kept dreaming of a dragon escaping Ben's coronation and burning Auradon to the ground."  
  
"...That wasn't fun," Mal grumbled.  
  
"I know you worry about Auradon sometimes. It's an easy thing to do when this is your home and all the people who want to destroy it are on the other end of a magical bridge. But that's where they'll stay, beneath the barrier around The Isle."  
  
"...Maybe you should tell Fairy Godmother about your nightmares, just in case," Mal quietly suggested.  
  
"No, Mal," Evie denied. "It's nothing."  
  
Mal hung her head with a sigh, all of a sudden very drained by the evening.  
  
"Let's just go to bed," Evie squeezed Mal's hand. "We'll both feel better in the morning."  
  
"...We will," Mal agreed, a bit distractedly.  
  
Evie hugged her goodnight, a long and lingering gesture that neither of them were in any rush to end.  
  
Mal searched through the muddle of blankets and sheets as she stood up, feeling out the remote and turning their tv off. Evie watched her cross the dorm room and turn down the covers of her own bed, stopping halfway to look back at Evie.  
  
"...If the bad dreams continue—"  
  
"There's nothing mystical about recurring nightmares, Mal," Evie gently assured her.  
  
"Okay, well, if I haven't made it clear before, I really care about you, E. Like, the caring about you when you were my best friend and a completely different kind of caring about you now that you're my girlfriend."  
  
Evie smiled warmly.  
  
"I know, Mal. I know you worry, and I know you can't help it. But even in Auradon a bad dream is just a bad dream, not a prophecy of doom. I'll be okay.  _We'll_  be okay. When was the last time I was wrong about something?"  
  
Mal couldn't stop a quiet laugh from escaping under her breath.  
  
"I can't even remember," she admitted, climbing into bed and tucking the covers around her.  
  
"Exactly. So, at least for tonight, will you take it easy and get some sleep?"  
  
Another laugh from Mal.  
  
"I will if you will," she said.  
  
Evie's smile went nowhere as she rolled over to turn her lamp off and settle onto her pillow, curled up on her side and facing Mal.  
  
"Goodnight, M," she said into the dark.   
  
Evie's voice absolutely did wonders for Mal, washing a wave of calm over her and allowing her eyes to drift shut with little trouble at all.  
  
"...Goodnight, Evie."


	2. Waking Nightmare

Evie was accustomed to waking with a cadre of alarms. Ten minute alarms, five minute alarms, her  _actual_  alarm, her "overslept" alarm; Evie had places to be, and it was crucial to her burgeoning careers as both fashionista and diplomat that she be there on time. Yes, Evie was used to her morning starting with her many alarms, but she wasn't at all used to feeling like  _this._  
  
Evie was the epitome of beauty sleep, she woke up perfect and glowing in a way that many suspected must be some kind of inborn, unconscious magic of hers. And she felt as good as she looked too, always well-rested and bounding out of bed to the sound of her alarm while Mal growled across the room and buried her head under a pillow. This morning, she felt like Mal, her eyes heavy and body weary as the alarm of the phone under her own pillow grated jarringly in her ear.  
  
Getting her eyes to stay open was a fight, one she was brutally losing. She felt  _horrible,_  and was quickly understanding how and why Mal spent many of her early mornings with a near-permanent "Hate Face" stuck on her expression. Evie didn't want to get up, oh, it felt like every molecule in her body was simply begging her not to get up. There would be no bounding here today, that was made painfully clear by the very deep ache permeating her core. Never mind her schedule, never mind her responsibilities, right now Evie would happily give them all up to close her eyes again for just a few more moments of sleep.  
  
As a hand searched for the phone underneath her pillow she realized she didn't hear Mal grumbling on the other side of the room, the dorm decidedly silent when Evie blindly tapped the screen and turned her alarm off. Mal, up and awake before her? Not unheard of, but always very strange. Strange would be an apt word for the morning indeed—Evie didn't sleep well, and she would be feeling this for the next few hours just like Mal and her Hate Face.  
  
It must have shown in her expression as she met her friends at their table for breakfast, some subtle sign in her features that Mal could see even through the perfectly applied makeup.  
  
"...You alright?" she asked, looking Evie up and down as she settled into her chair and set her purse down by her feet.  
  
"Tired," Evie answered her. "I guess I didn't sleep well last night."  
  
Mal frowned.  
  
"I didn't hear you," she noted in confusion, thinking a nightmare was the culprit.  
  
"No, it wasn't a bad dream—I don't even remember waking up at all through the night—but obviously I must have if I feel like  _this."_  
  
"It happens," Carlos shrugged, downing the last of his chocolate milk.  
  
"Maybe Mal can curse a spindle for you," Jay said, very nonchalantly.  
  
Mal was not amused.  
  
"It's only eight in the morning and still I don't have the time to tell you how  _not_  funny that is," she glowered at him.  
  
Evie, however, just shook her head and laughed it off a bit, too sleepy to really care.  
  
"Honestly E, I have a bad feeling about this," Mal turned to her. "With your mom being, well, your mom, I can't help but think sleeping curse."  
  
Evie was unbothered, stealing Mal's fork to have a bite of her fruit.  
  
"That was a curse  _to_  sleep, not a curse to be kept  _from_  sleep," she pointed out.  
  
"But still. Evie, when we all came to Auradon we had a plan to steal a magic wand. There are a lot more villain kids here now, maybe some of them came with plans of their own."  
  
"Cursing Evie?" disbelief was clear in Jay's tone.  
  
Mal now heard how ridiculous it sounded, but it was just hard to let it go where Evie was concerned.  
  
"Heads up," Carlos suddenly said.  
  
The three heads around him were indeed up, swiveling around to see what he saw and spotting Uma approaching their table, her tray in one hand and a bored expression on her face. It seemed she would've passed right by the four on her way to joining Gil and Harry Hook across the dining hall, if only she hadn't caught sight of Evie beforehand.  
  
"...What's up with you?" she asked, coming to a stop and raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Hi, Uma. I'm okay, I just didn't get much sleep last night, I'm a little tired is all," Evie answered, putting a smile on her face.  
  
Uma put a smile on hers as well, but one with a vastly different intention.  
  
"I guess it's hard to sleep when the weight of The Isle is on your shoulders, huh?" she sneered.  
  
"Uma," there was a very obvious warning in the tone of Mal's voice.  
  
One that Uma didn't at all heed.  
  
"I haven't seen any new villain kids coming over the bridge lately, now that I'm thinking about it. We all done with the charity now?"  
  
"It's not like that," Evie was quick to say. "For one, we're not forcing anyone to leave The Isle if they don't want to come, and for the ones who do, we can't just open the barrier and bring them to Auradon."  
  
"You mean the way Ben did for you guys?" Uma grinned evilly.  
  
_"Uma,"_  Mal again warned.  
  
Evie shook her head.  
  
"That isn't what happened, it only looked like it from our end. Uma, it's a big process. There's registering kids as citizens of Auradon, getting them enrolled in school, putting together their schedules..." Evie listed the things off on her fingers.  
  
"So this is what Evie of The Isle is up to now. Turning people into paperwork," Uma scoffed, her wicked smile suddenly gone in an instant. "No wonder you toss and turn at night."  
  
The former pirate rolled her eyes in disgust and left without another word. Mal had long since accepted that she was part Isle, part Auradon, and right now her Isle side was begging her to leap out of her chair and tackle Uma into the ground.  
  
"... _Do not_  listen to her," she said instead, grabbing Evie's hand and squeezing it tight. "You're doing so much good, Ben and the council wouldn't have helped bring a single one of the new Isle kids here if it weren't for you."  
  
"You really lit a fire under them," Carlos agreed with a bright smile.  
  
"Yeah, if it weren't for you then  _Uma_  would still be stuck on The Isle, where does she get off giving you a hard time?" Jay frowned in Uma's general direction.  
  
A heartbreaking sadness weighed down Evie's face as she pulled her hand free from Mal's.  
  
"...No, you guys. It isn't as amazing as all that," she practically whispered.  
  
It was funny how Mal, of all people, the worst VK of the worst, once upon a time knew nothing of providing comfort yet now preferred to give it through touch above all else. Evie may have taken her hand back, but Mal wasn't deterred, her fingers gently tucking the blue that hung in Evie's face back behind her ear.  
  
"What, E? What is it?" she softly asked.  
  
If Evie had any last-minute reservations about dropping a truth bomb on her friends, Mal's gentle voice utterly shattered them right then and there.  
  
"...Auradon Prep doesn't have much more room for new kids. Pretty soon any VKs we bring over will have to be sent to other schools in Auradon," she revealed.  
  
Mal and the boys needed no explanation as to why that was a problem.  
  
"Which means another divide between all of us," Carlos said out loud anyway. "No matter what they're told, the kids who get put in other schools will think it's because they're not good enough for Auradon Prep."  
  
"They'll hate the ones who  _do_  go here for being 'better than them' because of it," Jay added. "Just like Uma, watching _us_ get whisked away to go to school with princes and princesses."  
  
"The more I try to help bring The Isle and Auradon together, the more impossible it all seems," Evie glumly said.  
  
Maybe there was a shred of truth to what Uma had said after all. No wonder Evie apparently tossed and turned at night.  
  
"The weight of The Isle is not on your shoulders, never mind Uma's words," Mal assured her. "You said so yourself, the rift between Auradon and the Isle of the Lost can't be fixed overnight, not even by you. The next time Shrimpy tries to get in your head not a single person in this school can stop me from throttling her."  
  
There was a laugh that Evie very much needed.  
  
"Don't call her Shrimpy," she quietly giggled, brightening just the slightest.  
  
"Hey, I gave her a chance at cotillion. She didn't take it, so now she's back to Shrimpy," Mal matter-of-factly explained.  
  
Evie took Mal's hand again with another small giggle.  
  
"M, what am I going to do with you?"  
  
"Maybe forget about work for a little bit and go for a ride with me after school?" Mal suggested.  
  
Evie wanted to agree right away, but alas, she  _did_  have a schedule to mentally run through first, making sure her afternoon was free and clear.  
  
"...I don't know, Mal. I've got history homework, a big essay to write that I haven't even outlined yet."  
  
"Evie, you need a break. Yeah, part of me is weirdly paranoid that this whole nightmare mess  _might_  be magic, but another part of me gets that the hundreds of things you constantly have on your mind might actually be to blame."  
  
"Okay, but the hundreds of things I constantly have my mind are just  _really_ important and—"  
  
"And you're allowed to have a life outside of school, work, and the kingdom, you know," Mal said.  
  
When there was a chance for fun involved, the boys were always on Mal's side.  
  
"Your homework isn't going anywhere, Evie," Jay shrugged, half a French toast stick hanging out of his mouth.  
  
Evie's indecision still read clearly on her face. Mal sighed dramatically.  
  
"Well, I mean, if you'd rather be stuck in the dorm room doing your homework than out spending time with me..." Mal batted her eyes as if blinking away tears.  
  
Evie's jaw dropped.  
  
"...Senior year and you're still a little evil, you know that?"  
  
"That doesn't sound like a yes," Mal sighed again.  
  
"Fine, it's a yes," Evie laughed. "After school. You and me."  
  
It was wonderful for Evie to have something to look forward to other than dress fittings or council meetings. If she was being honest, she really couldn't remember the last time she and Mal had a proper date. Movie nights in their dorm were all well and good, but Evie was often starkly aware that dating someone should come with, well,  _dating._  A nice afterschool ride with Mal was a step in the right direction.  
  
So while her classmates were heading off to their clubs and practices after the end of the school day, Evie was idly pacing the parking lot, her heels tapping the asphalt with each footstep. Her pretty face was buried in the depths of her phone as she waited, checking her e-mail and clearing out her packed inbox so it could be free to be packed again the very next day.  
  
It wasn't lost on her that her life now was very different from the life she'd come to Auradon with. But, she supposed, she  _was_  a princess. And being a princess in Auradon was quite different from being a princess on The Isle, if done properly it was an actual job with actual responsibilities, responsibilities to an entire kingdom and everyone in it. Maybe Auradon hadn't exactly given that royal status or official title back to her, but Evie wouldn't let that stop her from helping the Isle of the Lost.  
  
It was so easy for her to slip back into work mode as she read through those e-mails; memos from Ben, from various council members, reminders and agendas and things of the like. So suddenly engrossed was she that the sound of Mal's voice came as a surprise to her, breaking her free from the fog of concentration.  
  
"E, there you are, I was looking everywhere for you."  
  
Mal's footsteps picked up where Evie's stopped, crossing the pavement to join Evie's side.  
  
"What are you doing out here?" Mal asked, taking a look around the parking lot as if seeing it for the first time.  
  
"What am I—? Waiting for you, of course," Evie slipped her phone into her pocket.  
  
Mal was overcome by a brief pause.  
  
"Okay. But why all the way out here?" she wondered.  
  
Evie would've answered that very obvious question with a bit of playful sass, if not suddenly met with a more pressing question of her own.  
  
"...Where's your Vespa?"  
  
"My Vespa?" Mal repeated, eyes searching around as if looking for the scooter herself.  
  
"Mal, you said we were going for a ride," Evie frowned.  
  
A gasp wiped the frown right from Evie's lips then, a gasp at the sight of Mal's eyes flashing a brilliant, mystic green and a smirk twisting her smile.  
  
"I didn't say anything about a Vespa."  
  
Mal was gone in a billow of purple smoke, the likes of which Evie had last seen at a watered-down cotillion. She didn't know  _what_ to say or do when the haze cleared and the giant dragon loomed before her, perched on claws and staring inquisitively at her with slitted eyes of emerald and gold.  
  
_"Mal!!"_  
  
Mal's grin was definitely still her grin even when it shone from behind rows of dagger-like fangs, something triumphant and playful and no small bit of mischievous. Mal as a dragon then hunkered down low in a clear invitation for Evie to climb up, with Evie pausing not to hesitate, but to marvel. Seeing the dragon months ago fighting off Uma at cotillion and seeing the dragon idling in the parking lot now were two vastly different things, both of them stunning in their own right, but different nonetheless.  
  
"...Okay, okay. I get the hint," Evie chuckled, stars in her eyes.  
  
Mal was very still as Evie climbed onto her back, and careful as she rose back up in preparation to beat those mighty wings of hers. She could feel Evie hanging on tight, arms wrapped around Mal's neck. Although only recently discovered, the dragon was already such a big part of her, and she'd been longing to share that part with Evie.  
  
For she was the only one who'd truly accepted the dragon right off the bat, accepted that Mal and the dragon were one and the same and that she couldn't like one while disliking the other. Even Ben, back when he and Mal were still dating, had his reservations about the appearance of Mal's dragon side, despite the fact that he and the rest of Auradon pretty much owed their very lives to it. He'd always pushed to keep the dragon tied down, pushed for Mal to "just be Mal", as if the girl he claimed to love and the powerful creature that took to the skies were not the same thing. Mal had spent many long nights with Evie venting about how she felt torn, how the excitement at uncovering this brand new part of herself was smothered by naysayers and one very big naysayer in the form of her boyfriend.  
  
Through all those talks Evie would just smile, and encourage Mal to always be herself even if it meant a little flying and fire-breathing here and there. Mal would come away from those nights feeling worlds lighter than she did coming into them, like she could go ahead and fly without even needing her wings. Looking back on it now, Mal wondered if that was just the first sign of many that Evie was the one who was really meant for her.  
  
"...Okay Mal, I'm ready," she heard Evie say, her sensitive hearing picking up on a slight shake to Evie's voice that utterly betrayed her words.  
  
Mal suddenly had her doubts that this little whim of hers was a good idea. Taking Evie up into the sky was certainly romantic, but in lieu of Mal being handily outfitted with seatbelts, highly impractical. The way Evie held fast to her had to mean she realized the same thing. But be it as a dragon or as a human, Mal would never let anything happen to Evie; she wouldn't let anything happen to her on The Isle with a cursed scepter standing between them, and she wouldn't let anything happen to her now. So with every intention of proving it to both Evie and herself Mal started to beat her wings, slowly at first, then faster and faster, scattering bits of rock and gravel with each downdraft.  
  
She heard Evie's surprised squeak as they began to rise up from the ground, the sensation of liftoff stunning her. Evie wouldn't understand it if Mal tried to speak now, so instead Mal simply thought, as hard as she possibly could.  
  
_I got you, E._  
  
Perhaps Evie heard her in some small way, for as they began to soar over the grounds of Auradon Prep she loosened her hold around Mal's neck. Mal could feel her relaxing, and the elated laughter as the wind whipped past her face was a promising sign too. Evie dared to look down, watching the earth rush past beneath them and seeing the clean-cut lawns of their school turn into the woodland wilds of a forest, beautiful shades of green just starting to tinge with oranges and yellows as autumn ever so slowly crept around the corner. Here was something Evie could never see with her face buried in her phone, or stuck inside on gorgeous late summer days to attend her council meetings.  
  
Here was something she could only ever see with Mal, the girl who was the one single constant through every whirlwind turn in Evie's life. She'd have to remember to thank her.  
  
But for right now, with the clouds at arm's reach and all the troubles of the world miles underneath her, Evie was just going to enjoy.

* * *

She'd lost track of Mal at some point in the evening. In her haste to get her history homework done in time to avoid pulling an all-nighter, Evie had sat down at the desk and neglected to curiously ask where Mal was going when she silently disappeared out the door. Knowing Mal, she was probably sneaking off to the kitchens to nab some dessert, so Evie paid it very little mind and concentrated on her essay. When Mal did return, Evie looked over her shoulder at the sound of the door clicking shut to find her shuffling into the room with a plain white mug in hand, hot steam wafting up into her face.

"Hot chocolate?" she guessed, going back to her writing.  
  
"...Tea. For you. I thought it might help you sleep easier tonight."  
  
Mal came over, her slippers silent on the gray carpet as she moved to lean over Evie and set the mug down on the desk. Evie smelled sweet orange and honey carried along with the steam, breathing it in blissfully.  
  
"...Oh Mal, thank you," Evie said sincerely, tilting her head back to look up at her girlfriend.  
  
"You're welcome," Mal came in close, peering over Evie's shoulder. "Still working on that essay?"  
  
"Mhm."  
  
"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have distracted you with our ride this afternoon," Mal offered an apology, but couldn't beat back a smile at the memory of her and Evie flying through the clouds.  
  
Evie chuckled and looked back down at her notebook, absentmindedly reading over a bit of what she'd already written.  
  
"You are a wonderful distraction, M. I'd choose you over homework any day," Evie told her.  
  
Mal faked a downtrodden sigh.  
  
"I'm a bad influence," she pretended to lament. "At least let me type it for you when you're done, you can go to bed and I'll stay up."  
  
Evie had an endearing little quirk of preferring to handwrite her essays first and typing them up on her laptop later, her thoughts flowing much better and far more naturally with a pencil in hand than with her fingers poised over keys.  
  
"I'll be okay, Mal. I'll finish in time."  
  
Well, it wasn't as if Evie had ever missed a deadline, so Mal left her alone to work, retiring to her own bed for the night. The tv remote was conveniently on Mal's nightstand, so she switched on the screen perched over the fireplace and turned the volume down low so as not to distract Evie. But Evie would not be distracted, she took a careful sip of her tea and threw herself back into her work in the way she was getting so good at, if not a little  _too_  good. They were only a couple months into senior year, and already Evie had so much on her plate. Mal couldn't help but watch her instead of the tv, her pencil stilling every now and again as she waited for her thoughts to catch up to her writing. It was kind of cute, really.  
  
Mal wriggled her way under her covers, propping a pillow up behind her as she settled back against the headboard. That was exactly how she'd realized it, not too long ago. When the tiny little things that Evie always did suddenly became cute. Like biting her lip when in deep concentration, or the way her eyes squinted when she smiled her absolute biggest of smiles. Evie remembered how she was always catching Mal staring, and she also distinctly remembered how she really didn't mind it. Neither of them ever liked the idea that friendship was always naturally inclined to turn into something more, the way it stupidly did in the movies and their tv shows, but when it came to the two of them, they really couldn't object to it.  
  
They had talked about it first. Mal vividly recalled how she and Evie sat just inches across from each other on her bed and talked, because Evie had wanted to make sure they did so. She knew Mal had left behind such a serious relationship, after all, and she didn't dare push if Mal wasn't ready to find her way into another one.  
  
Evie so intently making sure that Mal was okay with the brand new sparks between them just made Mal like her even more. It appeared that whether as best friend or as girlfriend, Evie would always be there for her, and that was a very comforting thought to a girl who had never known any kind of stability in her life.  
  
Mal eventually managed to tear her eyes away from Evie and go back to watching tv, and soon enough, she silently drifted off to sleep. It wasn't until much later, when her tea was finished and her pencil lead was worn, that Evie looked up from her homework and turned around in her chair to find Mal fast asleep, slumped down on her pillow. She smiled, smitten with how peaceful and innocent Mal looked in her sleep.  
  
Mal’s sweet gesture had done the trick, and Evie was yawning with the soothing effects of her tea. Her essay was written, and she would have time in the morning to type it, so off to bed it was. Switching the desk lamp off left Mal's lamp the only light in the dorm, and Evie stretched in her seat before she got up to go to the girl's bedside. Mal didn't stir in the slightest when Evie tucked the covers tighter around her and left a goodnight kiss on her forehead, completely lost in dreamland. Evie was ready for dreamland herself, and found her way easily to her own bed in the dark after turning off Mal's nightstand lamp and the tv.  
  
Another yawn overtook her the second her head hit the pillow and she curled up on her side. Replaying the day in her head was how she often lulled herself to sleep, and tonight all she wanted to do was relive her ride with Mal. More than just a magical flight, it was a rare moment of freedom, where she didn't have a care in the world or a single thing to worry about. Perched on the back of a very special dragon, the troubles down on earth couldn't reach Evie so high in the air. No diplomacy, no politics, no anxiety about facing the royal council with her plans to build a school on The Isle and no feeling like the fate of all the villain kids rested in her hands.  
  
Evie fell asleep so easily that she didn't even realize it had happened, not until she was opening heavy eyes much later and peering up into the dark.  
  
And being jolted where she lay by the start of a horrifying earthquake.  
  
"Mal!!" she cried out, clutching the covers in an iron grip as if they could anchor her.  
  
Mal didn't reply, and Evie shot upright in her bed to wildly search the room for her. But there was no Mal, and no room, for that matter. The only thing around Evie was complete and total blackness, something her eyes could never adjust to.  
  
_"Mal,_  where are you?!"  
  
No answer. Not that Evie could've heard one anyway, the quaking grating in her ears like the roar of a freight train. She tumbled from her bed before the earthquake could toss her out of it, not entirely sure she would hit a floor instead of an endless abyss of black, but needing to take the chance as her sense of self-preservation screamed at her to  _move,_  to get out of there.  
  
She did indeed hit a floor, lost and disoriented but scrambling to her feet nonetheless.  
  
"Mal!!"   
  
Evie called out her name again, for she would not leave her behind. But still, there was no response from the inescapable darkness pressing in around her, thick and heavy like a poisonous fog. It was a fight to keep her balance, thrown this way and that by the nonstop shaking, but she had to put one foot in front of the other. Nothing to grab, nothing to cling to in the dark, it was a wonder that Evie could even stand at all.  
  
With a deafening crash and an equally deafening crumbling sound, she knew that walls she couldn't see were beginning to collapse around her. She would be crushed and buried if she couldn't find a way out. It was an unnerving thing to have terror trying to paralyze you while primal instinct forced you to keep going, two completely contradictory feelings that didn't do any favors for the racing heart trying to beat its way out of Evie's chest.  
  
Grasping onto the hope that the dorm room was still there and she just couldn't see it, Evie pictured it with her mind instead of her eyes, mentally searching out the door and stumbling blindly in that direction. One arm out in front of her, grabbing at empty air, and one arm over her head, like flesh and bone alone could save her from crashing debris.  
  
It seemed like eons that she was lost in the chaos, but her heart skipped a beat of relief when finally she felt a doorknob under her hand. Evie fell into the door, thrown off her feet by the quaking and tumbling out into the hallway.  
  
Into walls and walls of flames.  
  
The heat was searing, the sudden brightness a painfully stark contrast to the blackened void she'd just escaped. Evie gasped, keeping low to the floor as she pressed on, avoiding the writhing flames lapping at her like angry and reddened tongues.  
  
"Evie!"  
  
Really, the voice was so distant that it was a wonder Evie could hear it, but hear it she did.  
  
"...Mal? ...Mal, hang on! I'll find you!" Evie yelled over the flames.  
  
It was like navigating a maze of fire, trying to keep from getting lost in the heat. But Mal was lost too, somewhere far across the treacherous hallway, and Evie just  _had_  to find her. The crackling of embers snapped against her ears like a whip, making her flinch and shudder yet never stop moving for a second. Her eyes burned with the acrid sting of smoke, a fit of coughing starting to seize her lungs.  
  
"M, can you—?" her sentence was broken by another wrenching cough. "C-can you hear me??"  
  
The smoke was overtaking her in just a matter of seconds, leaving Evie hunkered down on the floor and gasping for air.  
  
How could this have happened? How could everything have spiraled out of control so quickly? Just minutes ago she was locked in a peaceful sleep, and now she was here, collapsed on a floor, choking and burning. If only she could've made it through, if only she were strong enough. It was so hard to breathe now, an exhausting effort sapping all of Evie's strength. The flames still snapped around her, dangerous and deadly and closing in by the second.  
  
She hoped that Mal could forgive her.  
  
Her vision blurred, the crisp sharpness of the flames reduced to fuzzy pillars of oranges and reds before the frightening onset of tunnel vision narrowed everything to a world of black.   
  
Ironic. She'd spent all that time working to save the children of The Isle, and now she couldn't even save herself. Evie couldn't fight it anymore, she didn't have the strength, and she didn't have the breath. There was no choice for her now but to helplessly close her eyes and succumb to the dark. 

* * *

Evie awoke with a sputtering cough, feeling as if grime had seeped its way into her very body and a sensation horribly akin to sandpaper scraping at her lungs plaguing her with every strained inhale and exhale.

It was dark. It was gray. And it was cold. The exact opposite of the last thing Evie remembered, memories of an inferno branding heat and light into her mind. She was shaking as she sat herself up, an involuntary reaction to the sheer weakness she was overwhelmed by, but she managed to push herself upright nonetheless and have a look around.  
  
It  _was_  dark, but still Evie could see the air in front of her polluted with a great fog of dust and grit, enough to make her draw a hand over her nose to keep from breathing any of it in. The world looked utterly foreign when lacking in color the way it was now, everything a strange medley of slates and ashen grays. This wasn't the corridor she last remembered being trapped in, but a large and empty space reminding Evie of a treasure room.  
  
For it did indeed hold treasure.  
  
"Jay!!"  
  
She had taken a look over her shoulder and saw the shape of that familiar beanie, able to recognize it anywhere, even in the bleakest of atmospheres. Carlos was close beside him as always, and the sight of her friends gave Evie just enough strength to fight her way to her feet. The ash in the air clogged her throat on her way up, the dirty and bitter taste scratching her throat raw with another coughing fit but slowing her down only for a moment or two before she made her way over to the boys on shaky legs.  
  
"Are you two okay?? I have  _no_  idea what's happening, first there was that earthquake, and then the fire, and—...Jay?"  
  
Jay stared blankly at her, his face expressionless. Carlos was his mirror image, the two of them silent and unresponsive to Evie's words.  
  
"...Jay? Carlos? What is it, what's wrong?"  
  
Truth be told, she was afraid to ask. Jay was rarely ever at a loss for words.  
  
"...Guys, just tell me what's going on," after everything, Evie simply couldn't take the chilling suspense. She reached out and rested her hand on Jay's shoulder, trying her best to convince him that it would be alright even when she was nowhere near convinced of it herself.  
  
But it was nothing remotely close to alright. Not in the slightest.  
  
Stone. Jay was made of stone, his shoulder cold and rough under Evie's fingers. Despite the dead and lifeless chill, Evie yanked her hand away from him with a gasp as if scorched by a hot stove, her heart seizing up in her chest. The red of his beanie, the chestnut of his hair, all of it was now a dull and deadened gray. He and Carlos were statues, still and lifeless, looking towards Evie like they might spy her across a hall on an ordinary day at school.  
  
"No..." Evie cupped a hand to her mouth to hold back the sob she felt building in her chest. "What...w-what happened?"  
  
She asked the question knowing she wouldn't get an answer.  
  
"Jay...Carlos...please."  
  
As hard as it already was to fight off the tears, it became a thousand times harder when her blood turned to ice in her veins as a horrible realization hit. She wedged her way between the frozen bodies of the boys, hurrying past them to move deeper into the strange, grim room.  
  
"No, no, no, no," she whispered to herself with every step. It was a desperate and pleading prayer that she understood deep down wouldn't be answered, yet still it couldn't stop her from wishing anyway.  
  
Suddenly her steps would carry her no further.  
  
"...Mal."  
  
Suddenly it became hard to breathe all over again.  
  
"...Mal!!"  
  
Turned to stone, just like the boys before her. Lifeless and unfeeling rock, her arm stretched in front of her like the last thing she did was reach out for Evie.  
  
"...I couldn't save you," Evie's voice broke, unable to look away from Mal's face. "I couldn't save any of you. I didn't know this would happen, Mal, a-and I failed...I'm  _sorry."_  
  
The statue of Mal remained unsympathetic to her cries.  
  
"Please forgive me..." the sound of Evie's voice was strangled and strained. "Carlos, Jay...M, forgive me."  
  
Evie cared not that petrified stone couldn't register her touch, she reached out and tenderly cupped her hand to Mal's cheek, and then watched in helpless horror as the statue crumbled beneath her fingertips.  
  
"Mal,  _no!!"_  she screamed.  
  
To her ears, the cracks in the facade sounded like the ground splitting open all over again. There was nothing she could do as Mal broke and shattered before her very eyes, reduced in an instant to nothing but dust at Evie's feet.  
  
_"Mal!!"_  
  
Suddenly that horrific reality was ripped away from her with a violent yank, and she was safe and sound in her bed. But Evie wouldn't dare take safe and sound's word for it, throwing the covers off and stumbling to the floor. She was burning up, hair stuck messily to her neck, but for once in her life she just didn't care.  
  
It seemed so real. The earthquake, the flames, her friends turned to stone; her mind now told her it was all the work of a nightmare, but how could she be sure she wasn't still stuck in one? How could she be sure this was the reality she knew, and not just another mental torment? She shakily crossed the dorm room to get to Mal's bedside, struggling to find the shape of her in the dark. But there she was, sound asleep, flat on her back almost exactly how Evie had left her before she herself crawled into bed.  
  
The heavy sigh of relief didn't come until Evie very softly put the back of her hand to Mal's cheek and felt the warmth of her skin, warmer now since the days of her first transformation into a dragon than it ever was back on the Isle of the Lost. Mal was alive, and she was okay. Yet Evie wondered just how long she was going to stay that way.  
  
Prophetic dreams. Evie had laughed the notion off before, but suddenly it was no laughing matter. Now there were serious questions being raised in her mind, and she didn't have the answers to any of them.  
  
But she knew someone who did.  
  
Dressing quickly and silently was a skill she mastered on The Isle, when she would sneak away from her mother and the castle to spend nights out with Mal and the boys. Evie had long since thought her days of sneaking were over, but as she moved carefully through the dorm to avoid waking Mal, it was clear that she had been wrong. The last thing she did was sling the strap of her heart purse over her head, making sure it hung snugly at her side.  
  
She was ready to go in just minutes, her fingers curled tightly around the door handle as she turned to look at Mal still cozy in her bed. On some levels, Evie knew this was ridiculous. Running off without a word at the drop of a hat, over something as commonplace as a nightmare, no less. She remembered all the panic and anxiety Mal had put her through when  _she_  went running off without a word, and here Evie was now about to do the exact same thing. But it just couldn't be helped. She had to know.  
  
"...I'll be back, M," she whispered across the dark. "I promise...just as soon as I know that everyone will be alright."  
  
With any luck, she'd make it back before morning. She didn't want to give Mal any reason to worry, to wake up and find Evie gone without so much as a hastily scribbled note. Get in, and get out; that was the plan tentatively coming to life inside her head. Get in, get her answers, and get out, she needed it to be as simple as that.  
  
Because where Evie was going, she didn't want to linger. 


End file.
